Bollywood actor Ranveer Singh, who will be seen in Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s ambitious period drama ‘Padmavati’ next, has already bagged another major project. The Befikre actor is all set to play cricketer Kapil Dev in 1983, a film that captures India’s surprise win over the mighty West Indies at the cricket World Cup. Kabir Khan will direct the film.
Taran Adarsh shared the news on Twitter and wrote, “#BreakingNews: Ranveer Singh will turn cricketer #KapilDev in Kabir Khan’s sports-based film… #1983 #WorldCup.”
This was the first World Cup win for India and the celebrations back home went on for weeks.
While there was speculation regarding who will play Kapil’s role, Arjun Kapoor’s name was also in the running, Kair has now said that his first choice was Ranveer. “As a young schoolboy when I watched India win the 1983 Cricket World Cup. I had no idea that from that day onwards cricket in India will change forever. As a filmmaker, for me, the journey to that win, filled with raw energy and sheer passion of that young Indian team, is probably one of the most exciting stories I have worked on,” he said,
adding, “And it’s great to have Ranveer come on board to play Kapil Dev, as honestly I could see no one else for the role, ever since I started finalising the script.”
The director has already finished scripting the film, which will bring to light one of the most memorable events in the history of Indian cricket.
taran adarsh ? @taran_adarsh
#BreakingNews: Ranveer Singh will turn cricketer #KapilDev in Kabir Khan’s sports-based film… #1983 #WorldCup.
Titled 1983, the film is based on India’s unexpected victory at the cricket World Cup when Kapil was the Indian team captain. India not only won their first-ever World Cup, they ended West Indies’ domination in the limited-over format of the game. West Indies had won two consecutive editions of the World Cups in 1975 and 1979.
Talking to Wisden India, Kapil Dev had earlier said, “Everyone started saying that the West Indies were going to win it once again, for the third time. But I think we had something that no-one knew about. There was something up our sleeve — it was the self-confidence and the self-belief,” Kapil added.
Written by National Award-winning director Sanjay Puran Singh Chauhan, 1983 will be co-produced by Phantom Films and the founder and managing director of the Celebrity Cricket League (CCL), Vishnu Vardhan Induri.
Ranveer, who was last seen in Befikre, is currently gearing up for the release of Padmavati where he will be seen along with Deepika Padukone anmd Shahid Kapoor.
